Monday, January 31, 2011

Australia's flood-stricken state of Queensland (left) closed major coal ports, evacuated tourists from vulnerable resorts and warned of heavy rain on Monday ahead of a massive cyclone due to slam into its coast this week.

Forecasters said Cyclone Yasi could be generating gales of more than 250 kph when it hits the coast on Wednesday or Thursday, which would put it on a par with Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Yasi is expected to hit Queensland just days after another tropical storm struck the state. Cyclone Anthony hit the coast early Monday morning and quickly weakened from 80 mph (130 kph) winds to a tropical low. The storm uprooted trees and knocked down power lines in some areas but spared communities any major damage.

"This is a very serious threat," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told reporters. "It may be one of the largest and most significant cyclones we've ever had to deal with."

Tropical cyclone Yasi, which formed in the Coral Sea, is emerging as a triple threat to Queensland's highly populated north coast, bringing with it destructive winds, storm surge and heavy rains. Officials are prompting evacuations and are warning that the storm could be the worst the already-swamped region has ever seen.

Weather bureau meteorologist Gordon Banks rated the developing system off Fiji as very dangerous.Mr Banks said it would move slowly inland, a situation that tended to bring flood rains. "It's developing strongly near Vanuatu and we don't expect it to lose too much strength as it moves towards the coast," Mr Banks said. "If it is as strong as the models suggest, category three or better, heavy rain could potentially affect the interior on Friday, Saturday and Sunday."

Mr Banks said the cyclone was expected to come ashore in the north, but because it was so early in its development, nowhere between Princess Charlotte Bay on Cape York and Fraser Island in the southeast could be ruled out.

Currently, however, the cyclone is expected to cross the coast between Innisfail and Proserpine -- with Queensland's northern capital of Townsville directly in its path (left) -- overnight on Wednesday as a Category 2 system, bringing wind gusts of up to 275km/h and heavy rain.

Authorities are also extremely concerned about possible storm surges and flooding, advising residents in low-lying waterfront areas to relocate to higher ground.

Queensland disaster coordinator Ian Stewart yesterday warned north Queensland residents used to tropical cyclones not to underestimate the system.

"Relocation should be considered by people in low-lying areas. This is a very, very serious threat to the safety of our coastline and the safety of our community," he said.

The coastal region is home to more than 310,000 people, including Queensland's second-largest city of Townsville, with 180,000 people, and the growth hub of Mackay, population 80,000. But the coastline is also dotted with towns of just under 10,000 people, including Innisfail, Ayr and Bowen, and towns with between 3000 and 5000 people, including Ingham, Mission Beach, Tully, Home Hill and Proserpine.

Winds of more than 100km/h will buffet the area by mid-morning tomorrow.

Strong building codes have been in place since the 1960s in north Queensland, in a bid to ensure properties are better protected against cyclones and authorities have advised residents -- other than people in low-lying waterfront areas -- to remain in their homes. Heavy rain, including predictions of dumps of more than a meter, will spread south and inland from where Yasi crosses the coast, and is expected to inundate already sodden catchments of the central highlands. (At right: people in low lying areas wade out of flooding from earlier in year)

Queensland, which accounts for about a fifth of Australia's economy and 90 percent of its exports of steel making coal, has borne the brunt of a cruel summer, with floods having swept across the eastern seaboard in the past month, killing at least 35 people.

Cyclone Anthony then Cyclone Yasi

Queensland is also home to Australia's sugar industry, (left: sugar cane fields being harvested) which was also hurt by the floods and now risks being battered by the cyclone.

The floods swamped around 30,000 homes, destroyed roads and rail lines (right) and crippled Queensland's coal industry, with up to 15 million tons of exports estimated to have been delayed into the second half of this year.

Queensland's coal mines are mostly well inland and unlikely to be smashed by Cyclone Yasi, but they could be drenched again by heavy rain. The mines are still struggling to pump water out of their pits.

The Queensland Resources Council has estimated that the state's coal miners would take until March to return to normal but warned on Monday of further delays because of cyclones.

"If we get any more rain, it's just going to stretch out that time frame," council spokeswoman Caroline Morrissey said.

"The problem is we have got water in the pits, the mine dams are full and to pump water out of the pits they need to pump the water into the mine dams and there is no room for the water."

Cyclone Yasi is expected to classified "category 4" by the time it reaches the coast. That is the second-highest category and would be around the same strength as Hurricane Katrina and the strongest to hit Australia since early 2006.

Cyclone Yasi, currently in the southwest Pacific, is expected to make landfall near the northeast military town of Townsville with wind gusts of 200 to 260 kph, but with damaging winds along more than 1,000 km (620 miles) of coastline.

Australia's largest export terminal for coking coal, Dalrymple Bay (at left), had already suspended operations on Sunday because of an earlier cyclone, now passed. It decided on Monday to remain closed with the rapid approach of Yasi.

A poll of analysts last week showed Queensland would lose 11.3 million tons in coking coal output in 2011, equal to almost 5 percent of world exports. Most analysts believed miners would take until end-March to return to normal.No sugar ships are currently in the major export terminal of Mackay, Australia's biggest sugar export port (right) which can handle up to 3 million tons a year. Most of the sugar from last harvest has already been shipped.

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 1 February, Evening

“Thy love to me was wonderful.” - 2 Samuel 1:26

Come, dear readers, let each one of us speak for himself of the wonderful love, not of Jonathan, but of Jesus. We will not relate what we have been told, but the things which we have tasted and handled-of the love of Christ. Thy love to me, O Jesus, was wonderful when I was a stranger wandering far from thee, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Thy love restrained me from committing the sin which is unto death, and withheld me from self-destruction. Thy love held back the axe when Justice said, “Cut it down! why cumbereth it the ground?” Thy love drew me into the wilderness, stripped me there, and made me feel the guilt of my sin, and the burden of mine iniquity. Thy love spake thus comfortably to me when, I was sore dismayed-”Come unto me, and I will give thee rest.” Oh, how matchless thy love when, in a moment, thou didst wash my sins away, and make my polluted soul, which was crimson with the blood of my nativity, and black with the grime of my transgressions, to be white as the driven snow, and pure as the finest wool. How thou didst commend thy love when thou didst whisper in my ears, “I am thine and thou art mine.” Kind were those accents when thou saidst, “The Father himself loveth you.” And sweet the moments, passing sweet, when thou declaredst to me “the love of the Spirit.” Never shall my soul forget those chambers of fellowship where thou has unveiled thyself to me. Had Moses his cleft in the rock, where he saw the train, the back parts of his God? We, too, have had our clefts in the rock, where we have seen the full splendours of the Godhead in the person of Christ. Did David remember the tracks of the wild goat, the land of Jordan and the Hermonites? We, too, can remember spots to memory dear, equal to these in blessedness. Precious Lord Jesus, give us a fresh draught of thy wondrous love to begin the month with. Amen.

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 1 February, Morning

“They shall sing in the ways of the Lord.” - Psalm 138:5

The time when Christians begin to sing in the ways of the Lord is when they first lose their burden at the foot of the Cross. Not even the songs of the angels seem so sweet as the first song of rapture which gushes from the inmost soul of the forgiven child of God. You know how John Bunyan describes it. He says when poor Pilgrim lost his burden at the Cross, he gave three great leaps, and went on his way singing-

“Blest Cross! blest Sepulchre! blest rather beThe Man that there was put to shame for me!”

Believer, do you recollect the day when your fetters fell off? Do you remember the place when Jesus met you, and said, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; I have blotted out as a cloud thy transgressions, and as a thick cloud thy sins; they shall not be mentioned against thee any more for ever.” Oh! what a sweet season is that when Jesus takes away the pain of sin. When the Lord first pardoned my sin, I was so joyous that I could scarce refrain from dancing. I thought on my road home from the house where I had been set at liberty, that I must tell the stones in the street the story of my deliverance. So full was my soul of joy, that I wanted to tell every snow-flake that was falling from heaven of the wondrous love of Jesus, who had blotted out the sins of one of the chief of rebels. But it is not only at the commencement of the Christian life that believers have reason for song; as long as they live they discover cause to sing in the ways of the Lord, and their experience of his constant lovingkindness leads them to say, “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” See to it, brother, that thou magnifiest the Lord this day.

“Long as we tread this desert land,New mercies shall new songs demand.”

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Alabama coastline has been named one of the 10 most endangered places in the South by the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Although Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida saw plenty of oil, Alabama’s coastline was the only one singled out for the list, because of this quirk: For its purposes, the Law Center defines the South as a six-state region including Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.

The threat to the coast is ongoing, even though the oil spill has been over for months, according to the group, which contends that federal drilling laws still don’t have enough teeth to prevent another major spill.

A statement from the group touts its “legal efforts to strengthen oversight and regulation of offshore drilling, and to ensure that nothing like the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is allowed to happen again.”

The group does a new list annually. Last year, Alabama’s Black Warrior River(right) was singled out as one of the most endangered places.

Other places on this year’s list were highlighted due to various industrial projects, including hydroelectric dams, coal mines, bridge construction and hydraulic fracking for natural gas production.

A central theme of the group’s report involves energy, both producing it and consuming it. The South, according to the group, relies on coal-fired power plants and allows particularly destructive mining practices, including mountaintop removal coal mining (at left) and strip mines.

“Our region is headed down a path that threatens to overwhelm the Southern landscapes we love — our mountains, rivers, coast and rural countryside,” said Marie Hawthorne, with the group. “Decisions made today about how we extract and produce energy will have consequences for decades to come.”

The group contends that if the six states in which it works were a single country, it would be the sixth-largest carbon dioxide source on Earth. Carbon dioxide is one of the key greenhouse gases associated with global warming.

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 31 January, Evening

“Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran Cushi.” - 2 Samuel 18:23

Running is not everything, there is much in the way which we select: a swift foot over hill and down dale will not keep pace with a slower traveller upon level ground. How is it with my spiritual journey, am I labouring up the hill of my own works and down into the ravines of my own humiliations and resolutions, or do I run by the plain way of “Believe and live”? How blessed is it to wait upon the Lord by faith! The soul runs without weariness, and walks without fainting, in the way of believing. Christ Jesus is the way of life, and he is a plain way, a pleasant way, a way suitable for the tottering feet and feeble knees of trembling sinners: am I found in this way, or am I hunting after another track such as priestcraft or metaphysics may promise me? I read of the way of holiness, that the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein: have I been delivered from proud reason and been brought as a little child to rest in Jesus’ love and blood? If so, by God’s grace I shall outrun the strongest runner who chooses any other path. This truth I may remember to my profit in my daily cares and needs. It will be my wisest course to go at once to my God, and not to wander in a roundabout manner to this friend and that. He knows my wants and can relieve them, to whom should I repair but to himself by the direct appeal of prayer, and the plain argument of the promise. “Straightforward makes the best runner.” I will not parlay with the servants, but hasten to their master.

In reading this passage, it strikes me that if men vie with each other in common matters, and one outruns the other, I ought to be in solemn earnestness so to run that I may obtain. Lord, help me to gird up the loins of my mind, and may I press forward towards the mark for the prize of my high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 31 January, Morning

“The Lord our Righteousness.” - Jeremiah 23:6

It will always give a Christian the greatest calm, quiet, ease, and peace, to think of the perfect righteousness of Christ. How often are the saints of God downcast and sad! I do not think they ought to be. I do not think they would if they could always see their perfection in Christ. There are some who are always talking about corruption, and the depravity of the heart, and the innate evil of the soul. This is quite true, but why not go a little further, and remember that we are “perfect in Christ Jesus.” It is no wonder that those who are dwelling upon their own corruption should wear such downcast looks; but surely if we call to mind that “Christ is made unto us righteousness,” we shall be of good cheer. What though distresses afflict me, though Satan assault me, though there may be many things to be experienced before I get to heaven, those are done for me in the covenant of divine grace; there is nothing wanting in my Lord, Christ hath done it all. On the cross he said, “It is finished!” and if it be finished, then am I complete in him, and can rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, “Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” You will not find on this side heaven a holier people than those who receive into their hearts the doctrine of Christ’s righteousness. When the believer says, “I live on Christ alone; I rest on him solely for salvation; and I believe that, however unworthy, I am still saved in Jesus;” then there rises up as a motive of gratitude this thought-”Shall I not live to Christ? Shall I not love him and serve him, seeing that I am saved by his merits?” “The love of Christ constraineth us,” “that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them.” If saved by imputed righteousness, we shall greatly value imparted righteousness.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Global warming is already affecting the earth in a variety of ways that demand our attention. Now, research carried out at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem indicates that many tree species might become extinct due to climate change if no action is taken in time.

According to the research, trees which disperse their seeds by wind, such as pines and maples, will be unable to spread at a pace that can cope with expected climate changes. (Right: red maple seeds)

The research, which focused on the ecological consequences of expected changes in the climate and the environment on tree spread, was conducted by Prof. Ran Nathan, head of the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Science at the Hebrew University; his student, Nir Horvitz; and researchers from abroad.

Climate changes, which can be sensed already today and which are expected to continue in the next 50 years, include the increase of carbon dioxide concentration in the air and a reduction of surface wind speed in many areas. On the basis of earlier work, elevated concentration of carbon dioxide is expected to cause trees to produce many more seeds and to reach maturity earlier than under current conditions, hence speeding up their spread. On the other hand, the weakening of wind speed in certain areas should reduce spread rate of these trees. The balance between these opposing forces remained unknown.

Furthermore, it was unclear whether even the projected increase in wind speed in certain areas, together with the higher seed production and earlier maturation, will result in a fast enough spread of trees in order to be sufficient to match the climate changes.The new research, published in the journal Ecology Letters is based on a unique, fully mechanistic model developed to predict trends in plant spread. This model is the first to consider how projected changes in biological and environmental factors would impact tree spread in future environments. Predictions which were made until now were founded on past trends and did not take into consideration the expected future changes in the key biological and environmental factors that determine plant spread. (at right: different ways seeds disperse)

They note that global warming is already affecting the earth in a variety of ways that demand attention. Among the tree species that might disappear due to climate change if no action is taken in time are pines and maples (left).

Climate changes, which can be sensed already today and which are expected to continue in the next half century include the increase of carbon dioxide concentration in the air and a reduction of surface wind speed in many areas.

On the basis of earlier work, higher concentrations of carbon dioxide are expected to cause trees to produce many more seeds and to reach maturity earlier than under current conditions, hence speeding up their spread. (At right: a dandelion's seeds are spread by wind)

On the other hand, the weakening of wind speed in certain areas should reduce spread rate of these trees.

The balance between these opposing forces remains unknown. It was also unclear whether even the projected increase in wind speed in certain areas – together with the higher seed production and earlier maturation – will result in a fast enough proliferation of trees to be sufficient to match the climate changes.

These questions were examined in this study for the first time. Surprisingly, the results show that changes in wind speed, either the projected increase or decrease, have negligible effects on the rate of wind-driven spread of these species. The effects of increased seed production and earlier maturation is that which prevails, giving rise to faster spread in the future compared to current conditions.

Still, this research showed that the faster spread predicted for these trees in the future will be much slower than the expected poleward shift of temperature ranges, so these tree species might not be able to withstand this climate change.

“Our research indicates that the natural wind-driven spread of many species of trees will increase but will occur at a significantly lower pace than that which will be required to cope with the changes in surface temperature,” said Nathan.

“This will raise extinction risk of many tree populations because they won’t be able to track the shift in their natural habitats, which currently supply them with favorable conditions for rooting and reproduction,” he explained.

“As a result, the composition of different tree species in future forests is expected to change and their areas might be reduced, the goods and services that these forests provide for man might be harmed, and wide-ranging steps will have to be taken to ensure seed dispersal in a controlled, directed manner,” he continued.

“Predictions that were made until now were founded on past trends and did not take into consideration the expected future changes in the key biological and environmental factors that determine plant spread.”

In Israel, the research has bearing on various native tree species whose seeds are dispersed by the wind, such as Aleppo pine , Syrian maple (right) and Syrian ash. The model that has been developed will be useful also in predicting the invasive spread of alien tree species into Israeli natural habitats.

The current research points to the need to take human action to insure the dispersal of the seeds of the desirable trees within the next half century, in view of the expected climate changes.

“It is important for those responsible for forest management in many parts of the world to understand that nature alone will not do the job,” concluded Nathan. “Human action will be required to ensure in a controlled manner the minimization of unexpected detrimental byproducts, and that those trees which are very important for global ecological processes will not become extinct,” he said.

“These forests are important in many ways to man, including the supply of wood, the safeguarding of water quality and the provision of recreation and tourism facilities.”

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 30 January, Evening

“In whom also we have obtained an inheritance.” - Ephesians 1:11

When Jesus gave himself for us, he gave us all the rights and privileges which went with himself; so that now, although as eternal God, he has essential rights to which no creature may venture to pretend, yet as Jesus, the Mediator, the federal head of the covenant of grace, he has no heritage apart from us. All the glorious consequences of his obedience unto death are the joint riches of all who are in him, and on whose behalf he accomplished the divine will. See, he enters into glory, but not for himself alone, for it is written, “Whither the Forerunner is for us entered.” Heb_6:20. Does he stand in the presence of God?-”He appears in the presence of God for us.” Heb_9:24. Consider this, believer. You have no right to heaven in yourself: your right lies in Christ. If you are pardoned, it is through his blood; if you are justified, it is through his righteousness; if you are sanctified, it is because he is made of God unto you sanctification; if you shall be kept from falling, it will be because you are preserved in Christ Jesus; and if you are perfected at the last, it will be because you are complete in him. Thus Jesus is magnified-for all is in him and by him; thus the inheritance is made certain to us-for it is obtained in him; thus each blessing is the sweeter, and even heaven itself the brighter, because it is Jesus our Beloved “in whom” we have obtained all. Where is the man who shall estimate our divine portion? Weigh the riches of Christ in scales, and his treasure in balances, and then think to count the treasures which belong to the saints. Reach the bottom of Christ’s sea of joy, and then hope to understand the bliss which God hath prepared for them that love him. Overleap the boundaries of Christ’s possessions, and then dream of a limit to the fair inheritance of the elect. “All things are yours, for ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.”

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 30 January, Morning

“When thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, then thou shalt bestir thyself.”- 2 Samuel 5:24

The members of Christ’s Church should be very prayerful, always seeking the unction of the Holy One to rest upon their hearts, that the kingdom of Christ may come, and that his “will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven;” but there are times when God seems especially to favour Zion, such seasons ought to be to them like “the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees.” We ought then to be doubly prayerful, doubly earnest, wrestling more at the throne than we have been wont to do. Action should then be prompt and vigorous. The tide is flowing-now let us pull manfully for the shore. O for Pentecostal outpourings and Pentecostal labours. Christian, in yourself there are times “when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees.” You have a peculiar power in prayer; the Spirit of God gives you joy and gladness; the Scripture is open to you; the promises are applied; you walk in the light of God’s countenance; you have peculiar freedom and liberty in devotion, and more closeness of communion with Christ than was your wont. Now, at such joyous periods when you hear the “sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees,” is the time to bestir yourself; now is the time to get rid of any evil habit, while God the Spirit helpeth your infirmities. Spread your sail; but remember what you sometimes sing-

“I can only spread the sail;Thou! Thou! must breathe the auspicious gale.”

Only be sure you have the sail up. Do not miss the gale for want of preparation for it. Seek help of God, that you may be more earnest in duty when made more strong in faith; that you may be more constant in prayer when you have more liberty at the throne; that you may be more holy in your conversation whilst you live more closely with Christ.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 29 January, Evening

“The dove came in to him in the evening.” - Genesis 8:11

Blessed be the Lord for another day of mercy, even though I am now weary with its toils. Unto the preserver of men lift I my song of gratitude. The dove found no rest out of the ark, and therefore returned to it; and my soul has learned yet more fully than ever, this day, that there is no satisfaction to be found in earthly things-God alone can give rest to my spirit. As to my business, my possessions, my family, my attainments, these are all well enough in their way, but they cannot fulfil the desires of my immortal nature. “Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” It was at the still hour, when the gates of the day were closing, that with weary wing the dove came back to the master: O Lord, enable me this evening thus to return to Jesus. She could not endure to spend a night hovering over the restless waste, not can I bear to be even for another hour away from Jesus, the rest of my heart, the home of my spirit. She did not merely alight upon the roof of the ark, she “came in to him;” even so would my longing spirit look into the secret of the Lord, pierce to the interior of truth, enter into that which is within the veil, and reach to my Beloved in very deed. To Jesus must I come: short of the nearest and dearest intercourse with him my panting spirit cannot stay. Blessed Lord Jesus, be with me, reveal thyself, and abide with me all night, so that when I awake I may be still with thee. I note that the dove brought in her mouth an olive branch plucked off, the memorial of the past day, and a prophecy of the future. Have I no pleasing record to bring home? No pledge and earnest of lovingkindness yet to come? Yes, my Lord, I present thee my grateful acknowledgments for tender mercies which have been new every morning and fresh every evening; and now, I pray thee, put forth thy hand and take thy dove into thy bosom.

An important portion of the Himalaya’s glacier cover is currently stable and, thanks to an insulating layer of debris, may be even growing, a new study finds. The study’s conclusion contradicts a portion of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that had to be retracted last year because it could not be substantiated.

Though the IPCC report stated that the risk of the region’s glaciers “disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high,” the new study finds that ice cover is stable in the Karakoram mountains, a northern range that holds about half of the Himalaya’s store of frozen water.

That’s not to imply that water reservoirs on what’s often called the roof of the world aren’t under stress. Throughout most Himalayan ranges, roughly 65 percent of the studied glaciers were shrinking, Dirk Scherler of the University of Potsdam, Germany, and his colleagues report in the January 23 Nature Geoscience. But in Karakoram, 58 percent of studied glaciers were stable or slowly expanding up to 12 meters per year.

Scherler’s team pored over satellite images of 286 glaciers throughout the Himalayas. Collected between 2000 and 2008, they showed a consistent trend everywhere except the Karakoram: a reduction in the area of glacial cover. Many glaciers in those regions also were stagnant — not flowing — which, Scherler says, is an indicator of poor health.A blanket of dust and rock debris apparently shields some glaciers in the world's highest mountain range from a thaw, a factor omitted from past global warming reports. And varying wind patterns might explain why some were defying a melt.

"Our study shows there is no uniform response of Himalayan glaciers to climate change and highlights the importance of debris cover," scientists at universities in Germany and the United States wrote in the study of 286 glaciers.

The report said that 58 percent of glaciers examined in the westerly Karakoram range of the Himalayas were stable or advancing, perhaps because they were influenced by cool westerly winds than the monsoon from the Indian Ocean.

The new findings are consistent with what Kenneth Hewitt of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, has observed, and point to the fact “that the picture of climate change effects in high Asia is much more complicated than most people realize.”

Indeed, for much of the past century Karakoram’s glaciers were in retreat. A 2005 paper by Hewitt described a turnaround that commenced only in the late 1990s.

In the new study, Scherler’s team looked for factors that might affect the responsiveness of Himalayan glaciers to regional warming. A rocky blanket quickly emerged as a major one.

In general, the warmer the air above a glacier becomes the faster exposed ice will melt. A thin veneer of dust or grit will darken glaciers, increasing the amount of heat they absorb and exaggerating their warming, much as a dark roof becomes hotter in sunlight than a light gray one. But once the depth of any rock cover exceeds several centimeters, it will insulate ice from the sun’s warming rays. In some lower reaches of Himalayan glaciers, especially in the Karakoram, rock debris can include house-size boulders, Scherler observes.

In this range, it seems, rocky rubble eroded from uphill peaks serves to decouple the effects of regional warming from glacial retreats. The new analysis found retreat rates varied in the Himalaya “from high for debris-free glaciers to zero for glaciers with debris cover greater than 20 percent.”

What the satellite data, which surveys the extent of a glacier’s coverage, can’t establish is how much area glaciers might be thinning. Such information requires ground measurements, Hewitt says, which are particularly rare in this part of the world. But they could also prove quite crucial. He notes that some data emerging from India and China suggest that the diffuse fallout of soot from local industries, traffic and cook stoves might be subtly darkening debris-free portions of Himalayan glaciers — and constitute “a more significant factor than even temperature change in their melting.”

Diagram showing principal systems of association fibers in the human brain. The superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) is labeled at the center top (marked by purple arrows).

New Scientist covered two journal articles by Rametti and colleagues (2010, 2011), a group of Spanish researchers and clinicians affiliated with Unidad Trastorno Identidad de Género[Gender Identity Disorder Unit]. Using the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) method, they initially wanted to identify any sex differences in the white mater of the brains of non-transgendered male and female heterosexuals. Then the next step was a prediction that FTM (Female-to-Male) transsexuals would be more like males, while MTF (Male-to-Female) transsexuals would be more like females.

Differences in the brain's white matter that clash with a person's genetic sex may hold the key to identifying transsexual people before puberty. Doctors could use this information to make a case for delaying puberty to improve the success of a sex change later.

In 5 years of writing this blog, I have come across a multitude of news stories and press releases that make outrageous claims. Here's another one to add to the list. On the basis of two highly variable DTI studies in 36 pre-operative, pre-hormone treatment transgender individuals, now we're supposed to screen children for gender variant behavior and scan them at a young age, so their hormones can be altered before puberty?

Returning to the structural imaging experiments, were there any hypotheses at the outset, or were these completely exploratory studies? The authors cite the work of Zhou et al. (1995) on postmortem staining of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST). This subcortical nucleus connects the amygdala to the septal nuclei, hypothalamus, and thalamus. BST has been shown to play a role in the sexual behavior of male rats. The size of this nucleus in MTF brains was similar to that in female controls, both being smaller than male controls.

However, it's not possible to visualize the BST in living humans, so the authors went with DTI to look for cortical white matter changes. The participants in the first study were 18 FTM transgendered persons (before undergoing hormonal treatment), along with 24 male and 19 female heterosexual controls. The major findings in terms of sex differences between groups were located mainly in 3 fiber tracts:

In all 3 tracts, males showed higher fractional anisotropy (FA) than females. FA is a measure of local tissue properties including density, coherence, diameter, and myelination.

Fig. 1 (Rametti et al., 2010). Sex differences in fractional anisotropy (FA). FA is lower in female than in male controls in the superior longitudinal fasciculus with a posterior (A) and anterior (B) predominance. Control females also show lower than control male FA values in the forceps minor (C) and the corticospinal tract (D). The group skeleton used for the between group contrast study is green. The red color shows the clusters of significantly decreased FA in female compared to male controls. The threshold for significance was set at p < 0.05 corrected for multiple comparisons.

FTM individuals showed greater FA values in all 3 tracts than did the control females. They were similar to control males for anterior and posterior SLF and forceps minor, and in between control male and female FA values for the corticospinal tract.

What does this mean? Basically, at this point, it's like reading tea leaves. We have no indication of other potential differences between the groups in cognitive, emotional, personality, or motor measures, in alcohol use, or in other psychiatric diagnoses. We do know that testosterone levels of the FTM participants were like those of control females, because they had yet to undergo hormone treatment.

Moving right along to the second experiment, which compared MTF individuals to controls (Rametti et al., 2011)... The participants were 18 untreated MTF transsexuals (mean age = 25 yrs), 19 female (mean = 33 yrs) and 19 male controls (mean age = 32 yrs). Yes, the MTF individuals were significantly younger than controls [the human frontal lobe in particular is known to continue maturation processes into the 20's]. Procedures were similar to those used previously. Results in this study showed a greater number of differences in the white matter of male vs. female controls (again, with larger FA values for males):

left and the right SLF

forceps minor

right inferior front-occipital fasciculus (IFOF)

corticospinal tract

left cingulum

So what's new in this list? Left SLF, Right IFOF, Left cingulum. This finding indicates that individual differences were observed between two groups of male and female control subjects [or else there were unreported methodological differences]. If normal sex differences in DTI studies include IFOF and cingulum here but not there, that presents a problem for comparison to the transgendered populations.

Nonetheless, what did that comparison show? The MTF individuals showed FA values between those of male and female controls for all tracts (except for IFOF, where they did not differ from males).

Fig. 2 (Rametti et al., 2011). Histograms showing the FA means between control females (black), male to female transsexuals (MtF) (red) and control males (green). MtF transsexuals significantly differed from female and male controls in almost of all the fascicles in which control males differed from control females. (*At least p< 0.01).

So the MTF participants showed an intermediate pattern, but FTM individuals were more like biological males. The authors state:

Considering the present work and the data available in the literature, what can we say of the brain of MtF transsexuals? Most importantly, we would suggest that MtF transsexuals do not show a simple feminization of their brain –rather, they present a complex picture in which feminization and incomplete masculinization are present depending on the brain region studied and the kind of measurements taken.

So don't scan your little football-playing tomboy or haute couture-loving son just yet...

In the end, I don't doubt that there are differences between the brains of transgendered and non-transgendered people. But these two DTI studies1 do not provide a rationale for initiating treatments in young children.